^■ 



REPORT OF THE 
EFFICIENCY AND ECONOMY COMMITTEE 

ON THE EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS OF KANSAS. 



THE UNIVERSITY. 

The great waste from duplication in our higher educational institutions 
arises from a lack of a clear definition of the scope of the different 
schools. We want to emphasize why each institution should stick to 
its major lines. For instance, the University wants to give a full four- 
year course in domestic science. This duplication of Manhattan should 
not be allowed. We are not recommending that the University should 
abandon her household economics course, but that she should not extend 
it to where it duplicates the College. We could point out further in- 
stances, but this serves to illustrate our point. The primary function 
of Kansas University should be the regular undergraduate college work. 
We think it would be to the glory of this school to eliminate some 
medicine, some journalism, some fine arts and some of the work of the 
extension, and pour back into the freshman and sophomore years that 
energy. Thirty per cent of the freshmen here never enter as sophomores. 
Possibly a little more emphasis at the beginning of the course would 
stop this leakage. What we mean is that we should have better men 
and women teaching freshmen and sophomores. We would have the 
best men in the country on this job. Practically none of the three or 
four highest salaried men in the different departments now teach in the 
junior college. The University, like most of our other institutions and 
departments, has grown a little heavy at the top. There is too much 
inclination toward comparison with the schools of the East, which are 
emphasizing graduate work. The theory that a state is under obliga- 
tion to give instruction in every field of learning is not sound. She 
should not emphasize any lines which do not naturally grow out of her 
primary function. More courses and more hours are given in journalism 
at Lawrence than in some universities twice the size. A little more 
drill in the substantive subjects of English, economics and history might 
stand in better stead the coming journalists than some of the output 
of that department. It is difficult for this committee to understand the 
great importance of music as recommended by the Board of Adminis- 
tration. The University of Nebraska gives no music. The very fact 
that we charge music students a high tuition is an admission that it is 
not regular university work. 

We are convinced that the handling of the University by the Board 
of Administration has been to the school's detriment. The effect at home 
of the board's conduct of some of its internal and professional functions 
has been to intimidate the school's administration. Out of the state the 
idea is prevalent that three salaried individuals are running the Uni- 
versity and that forward-looking men do not care to come to Kansas. 






This impression we received fi'om visits to six large universities in the 
month of November. A board's removal of deans, not to raise the ques- 
tion of the efficiency of the change, is disastrous to a university's stand- 
ing. There are vouchers to show that the board members have traveled 
half way across the United States to interview prospective instructors. 
The University should be restored to its own professional control and 
the board reduced to one business-man commissioner, who can be checked 
over in the final analysis by a central commission. We would like to see 
the alumni associations assume a sti'ong advisory capacity. 

We want to reiterate that the University is not in need of added 
classrooms. Classrooms which are heated and cared for the week 
through should be used at least 40 per cent or 50 per cent capacity 
before new buildings for that purpose should be advocated. The Ad- 
ministration Building, with twelve used rooms on the two middle floors, 
has 197 hours' use in the forenoons, and only 71 hours' use in the after- 
noons. The class periods in the forenoon and afternoon are equal. 
Practically all the regular recitation rooms in Marvin Hall are unused 
the entire afternoon. These could be used for college classes. There 
are unused classrooms in Green Hall and Snow Hall. We quote here 
two paragraphs from the recent survey of Iowa's higher educational 
institution by the Bureau of Education at Washington. 

"At a state school no new building should" be erected primarily to pro- 
vide teaching space, while suitable teaching space is available in any 
building on the campus, regardless of the name in which the cornerstone 
of that building was laid. It is evident that there can be no proprietary 
control by a department or an individual over space provided by the tax- 
payers for educational purposes. The principle of the most advanta- 
geous uses of space for the good of the whole institution should prevail. 

"Further investigation may reveal a local tradition that work should 
be concentrated largely in the forenoons or afternoons, the time ratio 
reflecting the extent of the idle time. Any such tradition should be 
made to justify itself under searching criticism or forthwith abandoned. 
This problem is worthy of especially careful consideration." 

We have compared the University with the University of Wisconsin 
in the matter of afternoon classes. We find that in the German depart- 
ment only 21 per cent of this school's German is taught in the after- 
noon, while the per cent is 32 in Wisconsin; in the department of mathe- 
matics, 23 here, 29 there; in the Latin department, 13 here and 33 there. 
We fail to find a single department in which the Kansas per cent equals 
Wisconsin. When we quoted Fraser and the Administration Building 
we were giving the two crowded buildings on the hill. Twenty-nine 
pupils in the fine arts department occupy the entire top floor of the 
Administration Building. 

It has been said that if there were more afternoon classes the students 
would have no place to study. Five visits to the law library in the last 
two years during the school day have revealed it without an occupant. A 
new and enlarged central library with the other libraries which exist, 
together with the empty classrooms, would furnish ample study places. 
Further, there is too much room occupied by offices. In the Law Build- 
ing the dean has two rooms on the first floor, and each additional in- 
structor has a room. At the University of Chicago the dean has a small 



D» Of p. 

APR 21 'l9t7 



office off the library room, and all other instructors have merely a desk 
along the wall in the big library stack room. 

We are inclined to think that the times justify an increase in salaries. 
We regret that the University has an inflexible salary system. Promis- 
ing men, by being advanced more rapidly than others, might be held 
longer at this school. 

It seems that the greatest excuse for building the proposed Adminis- 
tration Building is the fact that the foundation already exists. There 
is a strong sentiment at Lawrence that the chancellor should have more 
pretentious quarters. A recent visit to the offices of Presidents Vincent, 
Van Hise and Jessup disclosed them as very modest quarters. There 
are no blue prints available in the state showing the inside plans of the 
proposed building. The most intelligible idea which can be had of it is a 
clay model among the fine arts in the top of the present Administration 
Building. It shows a building with pillars and a dome, with a sugges- 
tion of a fringe of classrooms, and with no auditorium and no library. 
The state auditor proposes to build a half of it. This would be building 
up to a line directly below the middle of the dome. After studying the 
model this looks impossible to us. The great center of a university's 
life should be its library. This is the building we believe the University 
needs most. An auditorium should be built with it. The improvised use 
of the gymnasium is unsatisfactory for University gatherings. It fur- 
nishes very poor acoustics for public speaking. If our analysis of class- 
room space be successfully challenged and Kansas University is to have 
a building for classroom purposes, she will not get her money's worth in 
this proposed "show" building. The $400,000 which would probably be 
necessary to erect the main part of the Administration Building would 
build a building with a double row of classrooms three stories high ex- 
tending from the present Administration Building to a point nearly 
opposite Marvin Hall. We recommend that the Joint Ways and Means 
Committee approve the floor plans of all future buildings. The impres- 
sion we received from a visit to the universities of Minnesota and Wiscon- 
sin was that they were workshops. Most of the buildings are three- 
story, of medium size and simply built. A recent fire destroyed the dome 
of the old central building at Madison. It was interesting to note that 
the repaired building was minus a dome. 

We are just as much interested as any other Kansans in having the 
University remain the pinnacle of our school system. We are finding no 
fault here with the many splendid men and women who are giving their 
lives to this school and its work. They are rendering a great service to 
our state. We are not in sympathy with the people who take flings at 
higher education. Our honest criticism of this school we do not want 
confused with that type. 

THE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 

Some of the things we referred to regarding the University are appli- 
cable in our review of the other institutions, but will not be reiterated. 
We showed the uncrowded condition in Denison Hall in our first report. 
There is an alarming waste of hall and stairway space in this building. 
This might be corrected and more utility given to the building. Some of 



the lower rooms are crowded with supplies, and others are used as offices 
which might properly be used as recitation rooms. The upper floor has 
a comfortable small room which is devoted entirely to a wireless station, 
and one-half of the top floor, with the large dormer windows, is not even 
used for store room. An analysis of the class schedule in this building 
does not indicate that it is crowded, and still much could easily be done 
to increase its classroom capacity. We believe that the Chemistry Annex 
is large enough for electrical engineering and that all the chemistry 
should be given in Denison. An analysis of Anderson Hall reveals only 
thirteen rooms used for class purposes. These receive 174 classes in the 
forenoons of the six days and 97 in the afternoons. Four rooms used in 
the afternoon would take care of all the work given in Anderson Hall. 
The equivalent of nine rooms are vacant all afternoons of the week. The 
College is a very flagrant offender in its occupation of rooms as offices 
and museums. The new Agricultural Hall seems to be guilty of the 
former and the Horticulture and Veterinary of the latter. If this com- 
mittee's recommendations regarding a department of agriculture at To- 
peka is carried out, relieving the College of its state administrative 
duties, many rooms would be added for recitation. There is a tendency 
here to too early discard buildings for shed purposes. We refer to the 
Farm Mechanics Hall and the building used as the repair shop. It 
looks as if these buildings with a little repair might have had a greater 
usefulness. Many of the rooms are idle a large part of the day in 
Veterinary Hall. A glance at the entire College schedule for the first 
semester this year reveals the last quarter of the day as almost idle in 
many departments. This College complains of crowded condition for 
classrooms for physics. The schedule shows that this department is now 
using nine hours in physics recitation in the last two periods of the day 
for the week, or, in other words, one classroom would take care of all the 
physics given the last quarter of each day throughout the week. This is 
important in view of the fact that a new physics building is being urged. 
The big department of English has one course four days in the week 
given after 3:25 p. m. Wisconsin gives twenty hours after 3:30. Big 
Anderson Hall has scheduled just two recitations in the entire week 
after 3:25. To look at the College situation squarely, one can see no 
need for added buildings for classroom purposes. This school has had 
twelve new important buildings in the last sixteen years. We do recom- 
mend that a new, adequate and suitable building be provided for the 
cafeteria, and that Kedzie Hall be restored somewhat for classroom 
purposes. 

We do reiterate here that the school is not justified in giving every- 
thing that might be of some value. We are thinking of journalism and 
the school of agriculture. Agricultural journalism may be of benefit to 
some farmer boys, but would n't courses in contracts and real property 
be valuable to a larger number of boys who go back to the farm? And yet 
the College does not anticipate a school of law. This College offers four- 
teen courses in journalism and has two professors and two assistants in 
the department. Ames offers nine courses, involving a total of fifteen 
hours, which are brief courses in technical journalism. This is given by 
part time of two professors and two student assistants. The establish- 



ment of this department at Ames was through a grant of $1000 annually 
by a citizen of Chicago, whose subsidy has continued to the present time. 
Mr. Claxton's survey committee recommended that it be limited to ap- 
proximately its present scope, and this view was indorsed by the Iowa 
state board of education, which corresponds to our Board of Administra- 
tion. We do not emphasize our recommendation regarding "this so much 
with the idea of economy as to call attention to a typical instance of where 
the College is leaving its major lines. When the College took on the ac- 
credited proportions of a college she abandoned her preparatory depart- 
ment, and only four years ago created this school of agriculture as an 
appendix. If there is some demand for this work, why should n't the 
College also give the seventh and eighth grades for the behind and neg- 
lected boy? If Manhattan is to be a College, then she should be one, 
and these people should be taken care of in the short courses and in the 
many high schools giving courses in agriculture. Our impression of this 
department, gained about the College, was that it would become extinct 
in a few years anyway. The Iowa survey committee has this to say on 
this subject at Ames: "The committee therefore recommend that the state 
college give up for a second time all noncoUegiate instruction (except 
limited short courses in winter or in summer for special groups of stu- 
dents), and give it up at the earliest possible date." Also, Dean Daven- 
port of the College of Agriculture of Illinois says: "Even though special 
funds may at first be provided for the handling of such a group of stu- 
dents in an institution doing collegiate work, yet the time is bound to 
come, as the numbers increase and as the demands upon the institution 
multiply, when this group of students thus introduced will result in defi- 
nite subtraction from the work which an institution may do of a strictly 
collegiate grade, whether we are to regard the space required, the teaching 
power of the faculty, or the funds which may be provided for the institu- 
tion." We go on this supposition, that the state is willing to contribute 
about so much to an institution, and it is optional with that institution 
whether it shall concentrate it into its primary function or whether it 
shall multiply the fields of its endeavors. 

Some provision should be made for the retirement of teachers, in- 
structors and administrative officers of our state school system who have 
become disabled through long service, but who despite their disabilities 
are retained in the teaching force. 

This committee recommend that all our state schools be liberally 
treated in the furtherance of their fundamentals and all things that are 
pertinent to that development, and is opposed to the continuance of all 
phases which are of questionable value and which are outside of its origi- 
nal scope. This is our conception of efficiency. While most of our com- 
ments are criticism, we would like to take the space necessary to mention 
all the splendid things which appeal to the people of Kansas about all 
these splendid institutions, but our regard for brevity does not permit. 
The personnel of this faculty is well trained and conscientious. The stu- 
dents are our children and our neighbors' children. There is a fine at- 
mosphere of harmony at this school. The one tradition here, too, that no 
student or faculty member uses tobacco within these old stone fences, is 
splendid indeed. 



THE EMPORIA NORMAL. 

There should be a check to the strong tendency on the part of the 
Legislature, and the Board of Administration especially, to judge the 
efficiency of any school by its growth numerically. There is a craze 
among our state schools to show big increased enrollments. This then 
lays the foundation for the demand for new buildings, and, if granted, is 
regarded as the state's appreciation. This desire for numbers has 
prompted especially our normals to extend the scope of their work up 
and down and out, in order to make the apparent needs as great 'as pos- 
sible. We are not going to say that the secondary schools should be 
abolished, but the scope should be limited to the number which is reason- 
able to utilize in practice-teaching courses and those who are directly 
interested in receiving professional training with a view to teaching. 
Emporia is not the greatest offender in this, but there is room for im- 
provement. The proposition is just this: It is not fair to the taxpayers 
of this state to support high schools at these institutions when they are 
maintained all over the state. 

Upward, the Normal has assumed full college proportions and is just 
now beginning to arrive at the point that she wants to boast of it. As 
we said before, this progress was made quietly through the schools, 
regents and boards. Emporia Normal to-day is giving fijjl college work 
in the liberal arts. She has construed "the training of teachers for the 
public schools" to imply everything from the kindergarten to a doctor's 
degree. We want to call to your attention that the Normals have far 
exceeded their original and universally accepted scope. The two upper 
years of the Normal constitute about 40 per cent of the courses offered 
in the advanced work. This is absolutely a duplication of the function of 
the University. Many progressive educational states have used an iron 
hand in limiting their normal schools to the woi*k leading to the state 
certificate. The Board of Administration has utterly failed in the pre- 
vention of duplication. This was the primary excuse for the creation of 
the board. Before we go farther, permit us to compliment the board in 
that when they saw fit to make a change in the heads of the three Normal 
Schools they gave us three good men in return. 

This committee is not complaining of the fact that we have three 
Normal Schools; we have not complained that we have an Agricultural 
School separate from the University. There is no mistaking the fact that 
we are duplicating necessarily many courses because of these separations, 
but we are for avoiding as far as possible the unnecessary duplications. 
There is field enough for the three Normals in their original purpose. 
We believe it would be to the best interest of the state to see that our 
Normal Schools concentrate their energy on their primary function of 
training teachers for the rural and graded schools. We would like to 
recommend that the state offer financial inducements to the rural and 
graded schools to employ Normal School people. Emporia Normal to-day 
has one' man in the rural school department. This is the result of the 
Normal's modern idea of emphasizing the training of high-school teach- 
ers. A. N. Farmer, director of the cooperative survey of the Wisconsin 
normal schools, in a report published December 14, 1914, has the follow- 
ing paragraph: 



"It is impossible for the normal school to reach the highest efficiency 
as a teacher-training institution so long as its courses of study are ad- 
justed to meet university requirements. The inclusion of subjects in the 
course of study merely to gain two years credit at the university has ma- 
terially hindered the normal schools in carrying out the purpose for which 
they were originally organized. The normal schools should be wholly in- 
dependent and should frame their courses with no other end in view than 
that of fitting students to teach in the public schools of the state." 

Wisconsin normal schools are giving two years advanced work. We 
want to quote again here from a committee of seven experts under the 
Bureau of Education (Bulletin 1916, No. 19, pp. 54, 55) regarding the 
continuance of the upper two years at Cedar Falls, Iowa. This ought to 
be of extra importance to Kansas, which has three normal schools, Iowa 
having just this one. 

"With regard to the proposed discontinuance (beyond the second year 
of the professional work) of the work in liberal arts at Teachers' College, 
Cedar Falls, the commission is disposed to urge the wisdom of this on 
several grounds. In the first place, it seems reasonably clear that the 
institutions at Ames and Iowa City are at present abundantly able to care 
for all students who may be expected to seek the bachelor's degree in a 
state institution in Iowa. If the state wishes a third institution of a col- 
legiate grade, it ought to be in the southern or western part of the state. 
Moreover, as has been clearly shown in another section of this report, 
the private institutions in the state are able to care for a very large 
proportion of the students who wish this degree, and between them and 
the other two state institutions all such students can be readily cared for. 

"In the second place, the commission feels certain that at present, at 
least, the atmosphere of the institution is not unequivocally collegiate, and 
that students who now receive training there for the bachelor's degree 
are likely to miss certain valuable elements in such training. This opin- 
ion is based partly on the impression which one who has visited many 
institutions easily gets from even a brief contact with the situation, 
partly on consideration of the methods of class instruction, which are on 
the whole dominantly those of the high-school and junior-college type, 
and partly on the fact that the presence of a very large group of subcol- 
legiate students inevitably affects the general intellectual maturity and 
academic tone of the work. 

"In the third place, the amount of work now offered as of third- and 
fourth-year college grade is relatively small and may be regarded as 
only barely sufficient to round out a senioi'-college curriculum. A com- 
parison of the program of courses at the State Teachers' College with 
that at the State University or at the State College of Agriculture and 
Mechanic Arts will confirm this statement. To be sure, a comparison of 
some of the weaker sectarian colleges would not be unfavorable to the 
Teachers' College, but this is a comparison which a state institution 
would hardly wish to employ. 

"Under these circumstances the commission feels that the expenditure 
of money and energy represented in keeping up the last two years of col- 
legiate work at Cedar Falls is probably not to be justified on its merits. 
The commission would not be understood in this opinion as intending to 
depreciate in any way the seriousness of the work offered, nor the devo- 
tion and earnestness of the staff of instruction. The professional work 
done here is creditable to the state and to the authorities of the school, 
but a division of energy such as is suggested would in the long run con- 
tribute to the efficiency of the state institutions as a whole." 

The example of the heads of our schools teaching some courses we be- 
lieve would be wholesome. President Jessup of Iowa University still 



8 

conducts courses in education. The late President Harper of University 
of Chicago taught throughout his entire school life. 

We would like to say a few other things touching on this school's work, 
but we appreciate the legislator's reluctance to read long articles, and, too, 
we candidly admit there is one thing in particular we want to emphasize 
regarding this institution. 

THE PITTSBURG NORMAL. 

This Normal, situated in the southeast corner of the state, has a good 
field, and on the whole has accomplished satisfactory results. We can not 
help being impressed with the fact that they are duplicating much of the 
mechanical work which is being accomplished at the Agricultural College, 
and it is difficult to realize how all of it can be applicable to teaching in 
the state. A Manual-training Normal is still quite a singular institution 
in this country. Besides the ti-aining of teachers for the public schools, 
the school comprehends primarily the training of teachers of manual 
training and domestic science. In 1912 this school was giving only two 
years of college work. In 1913 it advanced to the four-year course. This 
was the same year our Board of Administration was created and went into 
control for the purpose of preventing duplication. Up to this time this 
school was an auxiliary to the Normal School at Emporia. It was now 
given its independence by the board after it had been denied by the Legis- 
lature of 1911. We are not intimating here that this was a wrong move 
especially. The enrollment in the college in 1913 in advanced work was 
617, in the high school 526, in the training school 198. The 1916 catalogue 
shows 1290 enrolled in the college, 473 in the high school, and 237 in the 
training school. Of the advanced enrollment of last year, 240 covered the 
upper two years, while 1050 made up the first two. A large number of 
these are very evidently in the short course of the summer. The actual 
attendance at Pittsburg November 1 was 524 in advanced work, 260 in the 
high school and 188 in the training school. It might be reasonable to say 
that 350 of them, or one-third of the total enrollment, were mere children. 
A very large per cent of them live in the city of Pittsburg and in the 
adjacent territory and come in on the morning trolleys. The point we 
raise here is that the state should not be to the expense of giving this 
large group of children their elementary education. We are conceding 
a reasonable number for practice-teaching purposes. 

At the top this school is duplicating also courses in liberal arts belong- 
ing primarily to the University. Courses in Shakespeare and Latin are 
as commonly mentioned as the ordinary courses of pedagogy. One of the 
three main objects of this Committee's work was to point out to the Legis- 
lature the unnecessary duplication. This is what we are trying to do in 
referring to the Normal Schools giving college work. A second object was 
to point out waste. That is what we have done in pointing to the very 
large number of elementary and high-school age children in this institu- 
tion at the state's expense when the local communities are supporting 
schools for that purpose. If the state is to pursue its policy of permitting 
this school all her present departments she will need two or three buildings 
in the near future. If the Legislature sees fit, however, to say to this 



school that she shall emphasize the first two years of advanced work and 
curtail the rest, then this school does not need more than a medium-sized 
building for home economics and general science. We recommend a more 
permanent building for the cafeteria. 

THE HAYS NORMAL. 

The Normal School at Hays is rendering an especially splendid service 
to the big west end of our state. It is drawing a very general encourage- 
ment from all other institutions in different parts of the state. As a 
normal school, she has accomplished almost the ideal in her provision for 
teacher training. This is done in connection with the regular work of the 
city grade and high schools. The head of the education department at the 
Normal is the superintendent of the city schools, giving his afternoons 
to that work. This is in line with the recommendations of the Claxton 
committee, and in principle is much in advance of the system at our other 
two Normals. This plan is approached in the new arrangement at the 
University, where the city superintendent is an instructor in the school of 
education. At Hays there is a real public school with its own surround- 
ings to observe from. This Normal has about 500 in actual attendance 
to-day. Half of them are in the secondary department. If these people 
are here for the professional purpose, then we have no criticism to offer. 
If the abuse of the secondary schools is to be tolerated in any of the 
Normals this is the place, because in the big West high schools are not 
accessible to every young person within a reasonable distance of his home. 

Much duplication of the work at the College and University might be 
tolerated now if it could be forestalled in the future, but the safe plan 
would be to have this school's work end with the state teacher's certificate. 
A department of blacksmithing and farm engines hints at something 
besides a normal school. The president, in his recent report to the board, 
says: "Principals are resigning their positions and are coming here to do 
their college work and take their degrees." They should enter the de- 
partment of education at the University, for that department is already 
well equipped and it needs students. The splendid small department of 
education at Hays should have a larger faculty. At present there are 
more teachers in the department of music than in education. The highest- 
salaried man aside from the president is the head of the music depart- 
ment. He should more properly be in education, for that certainly is 
this school's major line. 

We think the cafeteria here, as well as in Pittsburg and Manhattan, 
should have a separate building. They tend toward economy and con- 
venience. The enormous size of the new Gymnasium and its inharmony 
with the other buildings suggest the tail wagging the dog. Looking into 
the enclosure from the upper wall recalls the Yale "bowl." Of course, this 
building has classrooms. We think this will not prove satisfactory, and 
certainly not ideal to have classrooms rimming an indoor athletic arena. 

The loyalty of the faculty, the harmony of the school and the spirit of 
the student body are wholesome. It is worthy of emulation that a number 
of boys at Hays have brought their cows from their home farms and are 
milking and peddling the milk in Hays to gain the advantages of an edu- 
cation. 



10 

THE SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF. 

This school has an attendance of about 240, and it varies little from 
year to year. These children come to this institution voluntarily, and are 
taken care of, while here, by the state. The school year is about the same 
as the average public school. The course offered covers the grades and the 
first two years of high school. Several of the teachers are deaf teachers. 
On the whole the teaching force is good. It is unfortunate that the build- 
ing's construction provided for no ventilating system. In a small educa- 
tional institution of this size it looks as if the superintendent ought to be 
the principal of the school and actually teach one-half the day. 

The farmer and the farm equipment should be dispensed with. The 
farm which belongs with this institution is a few miles out and is rented. 
An institution of this kind, where the students are able-bodied and can 
work and do not require the supervision of a correctional institution, 
should get along with a less number of employees. Some extra house at- 
tendants and help in the laundry could be replaced by student help. A 
steward's duties at an institution of this size should be combined with a 
secretary's. The superintendent and engineer here advocate strongly the 
purchase of a force draft for the furnace. The engineer at the Osa- 
watomie Hospital has a $5000 one idle. 

Much improvement was made last summer in repairing floors and in 
painting. A much-needed fire escape was added to the end of the chapel. 
The roof of the main building seems to be most in need of repair. Espe- 
cially liberal support should he given toward developing the industrial 
part of this school. 

THE SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND. 

This school is some smaller than the Deaf School, and its attendance 
remains about the same. We recommend the construction here of a 
small industrial building. That department of the school is badly 
crowded. The building now occupied by the trades could be used by the 
small children as a dormitory. This separation is much desired by the 
superintendent. The duties of the steward and the secretary are per- 
formed here by one person. There is great waste of room in the admin- 
istration front, in the living quarters of the superintendent and the 
maintenance of large bedrooms for the board at all these small . in- 
stitutions. I 
WESTERN UNIVERSITY. 

Following is the enrollment of this school for the year 1915-'16, ac- 
cording to geographical lines : 

Oklahoma 80 

Wyandotte county 75 

Missouri 60 

Other states 42 

Other 104 counties of Kansas 33 

This school is controlled by the Colored Methodists, and has its own 
board. There is some kind of an understanding that when the state 
appropriates for a building she is given the deed to the land which the 



11 

building occupies. We make no criticism here of their very good faculty 
nor with the seriousness with which they are performing their tasks. 

The Kansas City, Kan., high school could care for their student mem- 
bers from Wyandotte county. The remaining thirty-three Kansans do 
not need a separate institution. All of our state schools have the 
colored in attendance. Our recommendation is that this school receive 
no further state appropriations, and that they shall be given the use of 
the buildings so long as they are used for the present purposes. 

THE TGPEKA INSTITUTE. 

This colored school is under the control of the Baptist denomination 
and was in existence before the state contributed to it. One member of 
its advisory board lives in Oklahoma and another in Iowa. It is smaller 
and not nearly so well equipped as Western University. The faculty 
and salaried officers of this institution last year numbered eighteen. 
There were about ninety students. The principal taught five class 
periods in a week. An accountant, a secretary and a bookkeeper each 
received a salary. We recommend that further appropriations to this 
school be discontinued, and whatever property the state has there be used 
by the school. 

THE SCHOOL OF MINES. 

This school has dwindled until it is merely existing. One man con- 
stitutes the faculty. Weir is no place for a state school. 

We recommend a chair of mining at Pittsburg Normal. There could 
be worked out a division of the work given at the University. The 
government rescue work should be associated with the proposed work at 
the Normal and a modest building provided. 

THE HAYS EXPERIMENT STATION. 

About 3500 acres are included in this farm. It is the east part of the 
old military reservation. The remaining 400.0 acres belong to the Normal 
School. Big creek intersects a portion of the station farm. A large num- 
ber of acrfes are shallow-water land. On the whole the farm is an ex- 
cellent one. The general equipment is good. Quite an extensive work is 
carried on here in forestry on this shallow-water land close to town. The 
dairy barn is about one and a half miles south, rather strangely isolated. 
Forty acres are devoted entirely to small -tract experiments, carried on 
principally by the Department at Washington. 

It was a little amazing to us that the large appropriations were neces- 
sary when we realize that the government is duplicating our work and 
realizing too the large i-evenues we have. A closer analysis discloses 
large investment in the last two years in stock. The station now is 
thoroughly well stocked. We realize that experimentation is expensive, 
and we do not want to underestimate either the importance of negative 
results. There ought to be a strong tendency to make the farm, which is 
separated from the station, a real paying proposition. Modest allow- 
ances for an implement shed and an enlarged office could be fittingly used. 



12 

THE COLBY SUBSTATION. 

This station comprises 320 acres. One quarter is left for grazing and 
the other is cultivated. Improvements are of a model farm. Twenty- 
four acres are in one-tenth-acre plots under the control of a government 
man. The deep-water pumping station here has been without success. 
Fees from this place amount to about $1000 annually. These improve- 
ments are about one-half mile from Colby, conveniently situated for 
visitors. This station should be carried on in about its present propor- 
tions. 

THE TRIBUNE SUBSTATION. 

There are 110 acres in this station, 50 being farmed. A feature of the 
improvements is a stucco house. Last year $325 worth of products were 
sold from the station. Three horses and two pigs constitute the stock. 
This station is well cared for, but it is the center of a county in which 
there are probably less than 1000 acres of land in wheat cultivation. Be- 
cause of this, its nearness to the better stations of Colby and Garden 
City, and the fact that the government does not cooperate with this sta- 
tion, we recommend its discontinuance. 

THE GARDEN CITY SUBSTATION. 

This station is doing some upland irrigation from a deep-water pump- 
ing plant. The government is cooperating here in dry experiments, as 
they are at Colby. There is a fine quality of horses and hogs. This sta- 
tion is three or four miles out of Garden City. Considering their equip- 
ment and geography, this station and Colby should be sufficient for the 
extreme west. The superintendent should have some provision for living 
at the station rather than in town. 

THE DODGE CITY SUBSTATION. 

A quarter section constitutes this station. They have seventeen cows, 
four horses and six sows, two silos, a good barn, a good implement shed 
and a poor house. No experiments are carried on here. This is run as a 
plain farm by a plain farm boy. The station's work should be given up. 
There is no excuse to continue it. 

THE FISH HATCHERY. 

This is the largest hatchery in the world. Germany is second to us 
here. We have 100 artificial ponds. The game warden says thirty would 
be sufficient for all future use. Improvements consist of a large depart- 
ment building, three employees' homes, besides the warden's modern, un- 
occupied home, fish car and barn and horse barn. Eight men were on the 
pay roll last winter. One man ran the heating plant to warm one sec- 
retary's office in the main building. The state spent $2800 for the wire 
fence for two sides of the hatchery. We have spent extravagantly for this 
small enterprise. We received the impression outside of the state that we 
had a private plant inside the state doing as satisfactory work. 

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